Thursday, November 19, 2020

The family's first COVID test

 Zoltan complained about his throat feeling weird on Sunday. On Monday morning he had a bit of a fever, lots of sneezing, and congestion. Absolutely positive it was a cold, I checked the Alberta health care system's advice and discovered the fever puts him in the category of a core COVID symptom. He could quarantine for 10 days + feeling better, or have a COVID test + feeling better, before being allowed to return to school. We chose the test.

The system found a testing location relatively close by (in an old Greyhound bus terminal!) and there were plenty of open slots. I chose a time that had more openings, figuring fewer people would be showing up then. It was a very orderly process. When we walked in, we sanitized, were given disposable masks to put on, then sanitized our hands again before being sent to the intake area. The lines moves quickly for the number of people. At what was once a ticket counter I provided Zoltan's health info and received some paperwork, then we got into the next line. He ended up with a back-of-the-throat swab as opposed to a up-the-nose one, which probably felt better. We were advised the text informing us of his results were processed through an automated system and could some through in the middle of the night. Well warned.

Of course by the next day his temperature never rises to "fever" level and he's basically bouncing off the walls in perfect runny nose, coughing health. Waiting for the results. 

The next morning I come down to a text on my phone "URGENT from AHS." My heart was pounding as I had never even considered he'd actually have COVID but URGENT sounded, well, urgent. Nope. It was negative.

Still kept him home that day due to lots of Kleenex and coughing. More bouncing off the walls, decided keeping him home was a bad idea. Sent him to school the next day with a box of Kleenex and a bag of cough drops.

Monday, November 2, 2020

The garden just keeps on giving

 We've brought the herbs indoors and dug up every last vine and plant that had produced, or promised yet failed to produce, food. A few weeks ago we had a tentative dusting, then an earnest full week of snow that killed anything still living. I brought in every tomato that had even a blush of red. Today the very last one adorned my salad - we are now in grape-tomatoes-from-the-store-til-next-summer season. And all that snow melted during a week of above-freezing temps, which was sort of annoying but also made for a more comfortable Halloween.

We have been alerted we got off the wait list for the other community garden where we had requested a plot so we will have two plots next year - in opposite directions from the house - although the new one is also on the way to the source of all rhubarb, so there may be even more muffins and jam next year.

Speaking of which, last week I took a hearty portion of the rhubarb we'd frozen and made a pie. I used some of the pectin we'd recently made (from apple peels and cores) in an effort to keep down the wateriness. It was significantly better than the last pie, but still waterier than I'd hoped. And surprisingly a bit too tart. And then it got moldy in 3 days so we tossed most of it. We now have just enough rhubarb in the freezer for another batch of muffins, which will wait for deeper into the winter.

And the highlight of garden delights: beer brewed with some of the garden's fresh hops. It has a bit of the taste of a sour, and is absolutely my favorite of all the beers Terry has ever brewed that I can remember. I may have to hoard it and hide it. Luckily for me he just bottled a batch of something else he may like more, and has a third batch on deck that I won't like.  Because he never brought a ladder to the garden, many (most?) hops growing tall went unharvested - an error we will not make next year. 

We still need to check out our second garden plot, figure the size and which direction is toward the sun. Then we get to enjoy a gardener's favorite winter activity - planning for next year!